*53



the floor of the room, as a nesting - place ; although the aviary

abounded with more suitable spots, there being nesting boxes of

various sorts and abundance of bushes. The nest was a neatly

formed but flimsy edifice, rather hastily 7- put together, and the

three pretty eggs rolled out one by one upon the floor a day or

two after the hen began to sit. She stuck to her nest so long

as an egg remained in it, but when the last rolled out she gave

up in dispair. No other nest was built. It cannot, surely, be

natural for this bird to build on the ground ? Why mine did so

I cannot imagine.


The eggs were very like those of a Canary, which is now

considered by some writers to be only a variety of the Serin

Finch. It ought to be easy to prove or disprove this by

ascertaining whether the offspring of a cross between the two

are capable of perpetuating their kind.



THE GROSBEAKS.


By H. R. Fieemer.


(Continued from page lor).


The Jacarini Finch ( Volatinia jacarini).


The male of this species has a superficial resemblance to

the Combasou in full colour, the general colour being a very

similar blue-black. There is a silky white spot on the shoulder,

and the under wing-coverts are also white. The winter plumage

is different, for the under surface of the body then becomes

covered with feathers having a whitey-brown edge, and these give

the bird a speckled look.* The beak is black, the legs horn

colour. The female is described as brown in colour.


I have said that the male has a superficial resemblance to

the Combasou, but the resemblance is in colour and size only,

for while the Combasou is a stout, short-tailed bird, the Jacarini

Finch is exceedingly graceful, with a rather long tail widening

somewhat towards the end.


The Jacarini Finch, being very adtive and prettily shaped,

is a welcome addition to an aviary of small birds, but hitherto it

has been so very rarely imported that but few aviculturists have

even seen it. In the spring of 1894, two or three specimens



* This change of plumage is, however, very uncertain in extent,

some specimens change so much in colour that they look like brown birds,

while others (of which my own is one) only become slightly speckled on

the breast.



